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Frans Hals (1582/83 – August 26, 1666) was a
Netherlands|Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden
Age. As a portrait painter, by some considered as
second only to Rembrandt, in Holland, he displayed
extraordinary talent and quickness in his art.



Life

----
Details of Frans Hals’ life are fairly well
known. He was born in 1582 or 1583 in Antwerp. His
father was most likely Catholic.  Around 1585 the
family emigrated to Haarlem, as did many people
from Flanders in that period. It wasn't until he
was 27 that Hals became a member of the
Sint-Lucasgilde (St. Lucas Guild), but he must
have been fully qualified much earlier. Various
sources mention Karel van Mander as his master. In
Haarlem Hals was married twice, and had a total of
fourteen children. He live and worked in this
flourishing city on the Spaarne (river) for his
whole life, receiving commissions for countless
portraits. The painter died when he was about 84,
in 1666. He was interred in the old Bavo Church,
under the choir, on the Grote Markt. 

Work

----
Many of Hals’ works have disappeared, but it is
not known how many. According to the most
authoritative present-day catalogue, compiled by
Seymour Slive in 1970-1974 (Slive’s last great
Hals exhibition catalogue followed in 1989),
another 222 paintings can be ascribed to Hals.
Another authority on Hals, Claus Grimm, believes
this number to be lower (145) in his ‘Frans
Hals. Das Gesamtwerk’ (1989). It is not known
whether Hals ever made landscapes, still lifes or
narrative pieces, but it is unlikely. Many artists
in the 17th century in Holland opted to
specialise, and Hals also appears to have been a
pure specialist. He made portraits: individual
portraits, portraits of married couples, (two
pendants that are meant to hang next to each
other) and group portraits (five rifle association
pieces, now in Haarlem; portraits of regents and
regentesses: three in total, also in Haarlem). In
general, these portraits were commissioned by
people in the middle and highest ranks of society
at that time: authors, mayors, clergymen, traders
and merchants and governors. The riflemen, at
least the officers and the non-commissioned
officers who ordered their group portraits usually
also came from the slightly "higher" or more
affluent circles. Hals also sometimes did genre
painting: fishermen's children on the beach, a
greengrocer woman, the ‘village idiot’ of
Haarlem, Malle Babbe, and more of such pieces
which, in a certain sense, can also be considered
portraits, but which were most likely intended as
‘impressions of daily life’. 

Painting technique

----
People often think that Hals ´threw´ his works
on ‘aus einem Guss’ (in one toss) onto the
canvas. Further research of a technical and a
scientific nature has since clarified that this
impression is not correct. True, the odd work was
largely put down ‘alla prima’, i.e. without
underdrawings or underpainting, but most of the
works were created in various layers, as was
customary at that time. Sometimes a drawing was
made (with chalk or paint) on top of a coloured
undercoat (grey, pink), and was then more or less
filled in, in stages. It does seem that Hals
generally applied his underpainting very loosely:
he was a virtuoso from the beginning. And this
applies, of course, particularly to his somewhat
later, mature works. Hals displayed tremendous
daring, great courage and virtuosity, and had a
great capacity to pull back his hands from the
canvas (or panel) as soon as the portrayed person
was on it, alive and well. He didn't "paint them
to death", as many of his contemporaries
unfortunately did, in their great accuracy and
diligence (whether requested by their clients or
not). ‘Een onghemeyne ongewone manier van
schilderen, die hem eyghen is, by nae alle
iedereen over-treft’, (‘An unusual manner of
painting, all his own, surpassing almost
everyone,’) wrote his first biographer,
Schrevelius, in the 17th century on Hals’
painting methods. For that matter, schematic
painting was not Hals’ own idea (this approach
already existed in 16th century Italy), and Hals
was probably inspired by Flemish contemporaries
(Rubens, Van Dyck) in his painting method.

Vitality

----
As early as the 17th century, people were struck
by the vitality of Frans Hals’ portraits. For
example, Haarlem resident Theodorus Schrevelius
noted that Hals’ works reflected ‘such power
and life’ that the painter ‘seems to challenge
nature with his brush’. And centuries later
Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo:
‘What a joy it is to see a Frans Hals, how
different it is from the paintings – so many of
them – where everything is carefully smoothed
out in the same manner.’ Van Gogh’s
observation hits the nail on the head: Frans Hals
chose not to give a smooth finish to his painting,
as most of his contemporaries did, but tried to
keep it ‘alive’. Since life can be recognized
by movement, he made sure that the person viewing
his work would have the impression that the person
on the portrait is in motion. When you see someone
in motion, you do not see that person totally in
focus: you cannot completely grasp who or what is
moving; you see smears, lines, spots, lines,
spots, large patches of colour and hardly any
details. This is what we see in Hals’ portraits
- especially the later ones, when he was in top
form. This approach enabled Hals to come up with a
solution for an age-old problem in art history:
how do you make a true-to-life portrait on a flat
surface? With smooth painting, of course, but then
as extreme as possible (Gerard Dou and the Leiden
school). Another solution is the trompe l’oeil
painting technique. But Hals’ choice does have
something very special.  He was far ahead of his
time with this approach: it wasn't until the 19th
century that he had true followers, particularly
among the Impressionists. They came to the Frans
Hals Museum (at that time still established in the
Town Hall on the Grote Markt) and other museums in
Haarlem in order to study spectacular pieces such
as ‘The Regentesses of the Old Men's Alms
House´ and the civic guard paintings. And to be
inspired by them.

Students

----
It is often all too easily suggested that many
painters are considered students of Hals. But
further study has since shown that there are quite
a few questions in that area. In his ‘De Groote
Schouburgh’ (1718-21), Arnold Houbraken mentions
Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade and Dirck van
Delen as students. Frans’ brother Dirck and his
own sons were also probably studying under him,
and/or worked with him in his studio. Then we also
have Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne (according to
his son, he was a Hals student) and Pieter
Gerritsz van Roestraten (according to a notarised
document; he also became a son-in-law of Hals).
The Haarlem portrait painter Johannes Verspronck
(one of the ten or so competing portraitists in
Haarlem at the time) also possibly studied for
some time with Hals. In terms of style, the
closest to Hals’ work is the handful of
paintings that are ascribed to Judith Leyster
(which she also often signed). So she also
‘qualifies’ as a possible student, just like
her husband, the painter Jan Miense Molenaer.
There were probably more, but many painters at
that time fell into oblivion. Two centuries after
his death, Hals received a number of ‘posthumous
students’. Claude Monet, Charles Daubigny, Max
Liebermann, James Whistler, Gustave Courbet, and
in the Netherlands, Jacobus van Looy and Isaac
Israëls are some of the Impressionists and
realists who have delved deeply into the work of
Hals - by making study copies of his work and
further building on him. Many of them travelled to
the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (since 1913 on
the Groot Heiligland, and before that in the Town
Hall), where several of his most important works
were (and are) kept. Hals’ works have also found
their way to countless other cities all over the
world and in museum collections. From the late
19th century, they were collected everywhere: from
Antwerp to Toronto, and from London to New York. 
Almost every important art museum with a large old
art collection has a Hals. Hals has become one of
the classics of Dutch painting history.

Literature

----
The two most important publications about Hals
were written by the American art historian Seymour
Slive: Frans Hals, 3 dln (oeuvre catalogue), New
York / London 1970-1974; Frans Hals (exhibition
catalogue Washington/London/Haarlem, 1989. Claus
Grimm published his ‘Frans Hals. Das
Gesamtwerk’ in 1989 (Stuttgart/Zürich; also
translated into Dutch). Published in the Dutch
language in 1988: N. Middelkoop and A. van
Grevenstein, Frans Hals. ‘Leven, werk,
restauratie’ (Life, work and restorations)
(Haarlem Amsterdam 1988). This work gives an
account of restorations of the riflemen’s
pieces, but it also gives a picture of Hals’
life and work. A new book about Hals was recently
published: ‘Frans Hals in het Frans Hals
Museum’, by Antoon Erftemeijer; Amsterdam/Gent
2004 (in Dutch, English and French), in which
various chapters are devoted to Hals’ life, his
predecessors, portrait painting in the Golden Age,
Hals’ painting technique and other subjects.
Many pictures with close-ups in this book show
Hals’ works in great detail. Christopher Atkins
recently wrote an article in English on Hals’
virtuoso painting style (‘Frans Hals’s
Virtuoso Brushwork’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch
Jaarboek 2003, Zwolle 2004, p. 281-309).

Author of this article:
Antoon Erftemeijer, The Frans Hals Museum,
Haarlem, July 2005


== Biography ==
(Note: Few records of Hals' life exist.)

Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, probably in Antwerp
(city)|Antwerp. In 1585, after Antwerp fell to
Spain in the Eighty Years War his family moved to
Haarlem in the Northern Low Countries, where he
lived the remainder of his life. 

He took painting lessons from Flemish painter
Karel van Mander (1548–1606), who had also
fled from the Spaniards, but Mander's ideas are
not visible in Hals' work. The earliest known of
Hals' art is the 1611, Jacobus Zaffius. His
'breakthrough' came in 1616, with the life-size
group portrait, The Banquet of the Officers of the
St George Militia Company.

Historians have reported that he mistreated his
first wife, Anneke Hermansz (Annetje
Harmensdochter Abeel), and she died in 1616.
Already with two children by Anneke, he married
Lysbeth Reyniers in 1617, and they had eight
children. He reportedly alcoholism|liked to drink,
which led him into the company of people of ill
repute.

Although Hals' work was in demand throughout his
life, he experienced financial difficulties. In
addition to painting, he worked as an art dealer
and Art restoration|restorer. His creditors
brought him to court several times, and to settle
his debt with a baker in 1652 he sold his
belongings. The inventory of the property seized
on mentions only three mattresses and bolsters, an
armoire, a table and five pictures. Left
destitute, the municipality gave him an annuity of
200 forms in 1664. 

At a time when the Dutch nation fought for
independence, Hals appeared in the ranks of its
military guilds. He was also a member of the
Chamber of Rhetoric, and in 1644 chairman of the
Painters Corporation at Haarlem.

Frans Hals died in Haarlem in 1666 and was buried
in the city's Sint-Bavokerk|St. Bavo Church. His
widow later died obscurely in a hospital after
seeking outdoor relief from the guardians of the
poor.

== Artistic career ==

Hals is best known for his portraits, mainly of
wealthy citizens. He also painted large group
portraits, many of which showed civil guards. He
was a Baroque painter, with intimate realism and a
radical approach.

His pictures illustrate the various strata of
society into which his life led him —
banquets or meetings of officers, sharpshooters, 
guildsmen, admirals, generals, burgomasters,
merchants, lawyers, and clerks, itinerant players
and singers, gentlefolk, fishwives and tavern
heroes.

In group portraits, such as the Archers of St.
Hadrian, Hals captures each character in a
different manner. The faces are not idealized and
are clearly distinguishable with their
personalities revealed in a variety of poses and
facial expressions.

His first master at Antwerp was probably Van Noort
but he then entered the atelier of painter and
historian Carel van Mander. (Hals owned some
Mander paintings, that were amongst the items sold
to pay his bakery debt in 1652). He soon improved
upon the practice of the time, illustrated by Jan
van Scorel and Antonio Moro, and emancipated
himself gradually from tradition.

Hals was fond of daylight and silvery sheen, while
Rembrandt used golden glow effects based upon
artificial contrasts of low light in immeasurable
gloom. Both men were painters of touch, but of
touch on different keys — Rembrandt was the
bass, Hals the treble. Hals seized, with rare
intuition, a moment in the life of his subjects.
What nature displayed in that moment he reproduced
thoroughly in a delicate scale of color, and with
mastery over every form of expression. He became
so clever that exact tone, light and shade, and
modelling are obtained with a few marked and fluid
strokes of the brush.

The only record of his work in the first decade of
his independent activity is an engraving by Jan
van de Velde copied from lost portrait of The
Minister Johannes Bogardus.

The earliest works by Hals that remain, Two Boys
Playing and Singing and a Banquet of the Officers
of the St Joris Doele or Arquebusiers of St George
(1616), show him as a careful draughtsman capable
of great finish, yet spirited withal. The flesh he
painted, is pastose and burnished, less clear than
it subsequently became. Later, he became more
effective, displayed more freedom of hand, and a
greater command of effect. 

At this period he painted the full length of
Madame van Beresteyn (Louvre), and a  full-length
portrait of Willem van Heythuysen leaning on a
sword. Both these pictures are equalled by the
other Banquet of the officers, of the Arquebusiers
of St George (with different portraits) and the
Banquet of the officers of the Cloveniers or
Arquebusiers of St Andrew of 1627 and an Assembly
of the officers of the Arquebusiers of St Andrew
of 1633. A similar painting, with the date of
1637, suggests some study of Rembrandt
masterpieces, and a similar influence is apparent
in a picture of 1641 representing the Regents of
the Company of St Elizabeth, and in the portrait
of Maria Voogt at Amsterdam. 


From 1620 till 1640 he painted many double
portraits of married couples, on separate panels,
the man on the left panel, his wife at his right.
Only once did Hals portray a couple on a single
canvas: Double Portrait of a Couple, (circa 1623,
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam).

His style changed throughout his life. Vivid
colours were gradually replaced by pieces where
one colour dominated. Since 1641 he showed a
tendency to restrict the gamut of his palette, and
to suggest color rather than express it. Later in
his life darker tones, even with much black, took
over. His brush strokes became looser in later
years, fine details became less important than an
overall impression. Also where his earlier pieces
radiated gaiety and liveliness, his later
portraits emphasized the stature and dignity of
the people portrayed. This austerity is displayed
in Regentesses of the Old Men's Alms House and The
Regents and Regentesses of the Oudemannenhuis (c.
1664), which are masterpieces of color, though in
substance all but monochromes. His restricted
palette is particularly noticeable in his flesh
tints which from year to year became more grey,
until finally the shadows were painted in almost
absolute black, as in the Tymane Oosdorp.

As this tendency coincides with the period of his
poverty, historians suggest that one of the
reasons, if not the only reason, of his
predilection for black and white pigment was the
low price of these colors as compared with the
costly lakes and carmines.

As a portrait painter Hals had scarcely the
psychological insight of a Rembrandt or Velazquez,
though in a few works, like the Admiral de Ruyter,
the Jacob Olycan, and the Albert van der Meer
paintings, he reveals a searching analysis of
character which has little in common with the
instantaneous expression of his so-called
character portraits. In these, he generally sets
upon the canvas the fleeting aspect of the various
stages of merriment, from the subtle, half ironic
smile that quivers round the lips of the curiously
misnamed Laughing Cavalier to the imbecile grin of
the Hille Bobbe. To this group of pictures belong
Baron Gustav Rothschilds Jester, the Bohemienne
and the Fisher Boy, whilst the Portrait of the
Artist with his second Wife, and the somewhat
confused group of the Beresteyn Family at the
Louvre show a similar tendency. Far less scattered
in arrangement than this Beresteyn group, and in
every respect one of the most masterly of Hals'
achievements is the group called The Painter and
his Family, which was almost unknown until it
appeared at the winter exhibition at the Royal
Academy in 1906.

== Influence ==
Frans influenced his brother Dirck Hals (born at
Haarlem, 1591-1656) who was also a painter. Four
of his sons followed in his path and became
painters:
* Harmen Hals (1611–1669)
* Frans Hals Junior (1618–1669)
* Reynier Hals (1627–1672)
* Nicolaes Hals (1628–1686)

Of the master's numerous family only Franz Hals
the Younger (1622–1669) is notable, with
images of cottages and poultry. A table laden with
gold and silver dishes, cups, glasses and books,
is one of his finest works and deserving of a
passing glance.

Quite in another form, and with much of the
freedom of the elder Hals, Dirk Hals, his brother,
was a painter of festivals and ballrooms. But Dirk
had too much of the freedom and too little of the
skill in drawing which characterized his brother.

Other contemporary painters who took inspiration
from Frans Hals:
* Jan Miense Molenaer (1609–1668) and his
wife Judith Leyster (1609–1660), Haarlem
* Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685), Haarlem
* Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638), South Low
Countries
* Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (1597–1662),
Haarlem
* Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613–1670),
Amsterdam

== Legacy ==
Hals' reputation waned after his death and for two
centuries he was held in such poor esteem that
some of his paintings, which are now among the
proudest possessions of public galleries, were
sold at auction for a few pounds or even
shillings. The portrait of Johannes Acronius
realized five shillings at the Enschede sale in
1786. The portrait of the man with the sword at
the Liechtenstein gallery sold in 1800 for 4, 5s.

Starting at the middle of the 19th century his
fame rose again. With his rehabilitation in public
esteem came the enormous rise in values, and, at
the Secretan sale in 1889, the portrait of Pieter
van de Broecke Danvers was bid up to 4,420, while
in 1908 the National Gallery paid 25,000 for the
large group from the collection of Lord Talbot de
Malahide.

From 1870 to 1920 his paintings served as a model
for portrait painters. The France|French
Impressionism|impressionist painter Édouard Manet
was profoundly influenced by Hals.

Many of his paintings were then sold to American
collectors, who appreciated his uncritical
attitude towards wealth and status.

A collection of his work is at display in the
Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem.

==See also==
* Han van Meegeren

==External links==
Commonscat|Frans Hals
*http://www.franshalsmuseum.nl/index_en.html Frans
Hals Museum in Haarlem
*http://www.wga.hu/index1.html Web Gallery of Art
(large collection of pictures and extensive
biography)
*http://www.abcgallery.com/H/hals/hals.html Olga's
Gallery
*http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hals.html The
Artchive